Meditating on God's Word

Wednesday, 26 December 2012

“And
the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the
elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD, that
he did for Israel.”Judges 2:7

(Continued from Part 1)

Joshua,
like Moses before him, was by his life, obedience to God and leadership, a
powerful and sustaining influence among the people of Israel. While he and those
of his generation, who with him, had experienced God’s deliverance and leading
of Israel to the Promised Land still lived, the people were overall closer to
God in their minds and hearts, and served the Lord in what He had commanded.
This is not to say that there were no rebels or some who didn't choose
otherwise during that time. The record shows, that both during the time of
Moses and the time of Joshua’s leadership, some failed to obey God, incited rebellion
against God’s authority, and paid dearly for their dissention and disobedience.

It does
seem however, that the generation which grew under Joshua had overall a closer
sense of God than the generation which followed - the latter being labelled in
verse 10, as ‘not knowing the Lord or His works’! We read further that the net result of this ‘not
knowing God’ as the previous generation did, was their abandonment of the God
of their fathers. No doubt they had heard about the works of God which their ‘fathers’
had witnessed, and had received the instructions their leaders and parents had
passed down faithfully to them, but they had no personal experience or
reference point to the events that made Israel the nation it was, after being
delivered from slavery in Egypt. They had not seen with their own eyes, the
conquest of the land they were now blessed to live in, and God’s mighty hand in
providing it for them. They may have continued in the ‘religious’ aspects and
practices of their fathers, but they took for granted the things that the
previous generation had cherished and considered precious. They lost sight of
the history and foundations which made them what they were in the present. They
lost the awe and respect for the separation and holiness which made Israel God’s
people in the first place, and a chosen race to stand out as ‘different’ from
the heathen world around it. They no longer held the vision of being the priests
and kings God had intended them to be, influencing the people they came in
contact with FOR God, and not being influenced by them AWAY FROM God.

Without
those ‘anchors’ in place, and with a strong heathen influence at their
doorstep, their spiritual stability suffered quickly. The verses that follow,
describe how they did evil in the sight of the Lord, forsook the God of their
fathers and chose the idolatry and ways of the world - the ungodly nations
around them! The very thing God had carefully and painstakingly forbidden and
commanded Israel to keep separate from. Such a loss from just one generation to
the next! Interestingly we can spot the same arguments they used to justify
their adoption of heathen practices, among Christians today. Some Israelites
for instance, ‘copied’ the idols of the pagan nations, but called them by the
name of the God of the Bible, or claimed them to represent Yahweh. This was
such an abomination to God, that severe punishment followed their actions. Sadly
and in spite of God’s constant reminders and reprimands, Israel continued on a
downward spiralling pattern of spiritual disintegration, as one generation gave
way to the next and more liberal and tolerant practices were adopted.

As we have
noted, there is a similar pattern afflicting and disintegrating Christianity
today, particularly in western nations, which in the past have been the bulwark
and stronghold of the faith and the source of worldwide influence of the gospel.
Each new generation although perhaps initially keeping to the main doctrines of
the faith, seems to overall lose some of the faithfulness, closeness to God and
separation from the world, which the previous generation exhibited and
maintained.Exceptional individuals exist in every generation reflecting a
closer and more perfect walk with God, and reminding us all of how we should
serve the Lord, but in general there is a loss of faithfulness. The vision,
fire, desire and obedience are dimmed down, so low in fact that in surveys
taken in our Christian, western nations, there has not been found to be any
statistically significant difference between evangelical Christians and
unbelievers!This is not mere generational preference, it is spiritual degeneration!

Effective
leadership helps, but there is however a sad human limitation in the influence
we can exert on others, particularly those of the generation which follows our
own. We can tell them, show them and teach them, but we cannot pass onto them
our personal experiences - those they must desire and discover for themselves!
Our love, fear and obedience of God and our efforts in serving Him in the
present generation then, should be most excellent and of the highest quality,
reflecting the greatest faithfulness and deepest conviction, so that the next
generation may have the best possible example to view, remember and follow.
Whenever we lessen or compromise our stand for God even a little, we should
think that the damage we are doing is not merely to ourselves and those of our
immediate family, that would be bad enough, but we should consider also how we
will impact and further disadvantage the chances of spiritual survival for the
next generation.

Let us be true soldiers of the Cross and followers of the Lamb, fighting to stem the flood of degeneration which threatens the very existence of true Christianity, remembering the question that Jesus put to us as His disciples, when He returns, will He find faith on the earth?

The only way we can possibly resist this tide of change and deterioration, and
make a difference, is by individual personal determination to pray and stay close to God, relying on His strength not to abandon,
compromise or lessen the values of the Word of God; to live each and every day
as responsible, mature, Bible-instructed and informed believers, wholeheartedly
upholding God’s truth; to teach them to our children and our children’s
children; to hold on firmly and stay faithful in this endeavour until the end!

“And
the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the
elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD, that
he did for Israel.”Judges 2:7

We should
greatly rejoice over the blessing of having leaders who stay close to God and
inspire us by their lives and teaching to do the same. Their experiences, love
for God and the anointing the Lord bestows upon them, touch us and affect us
with positive and powerful impact, encouraging us to stay the course, walk the
path and run the race. The unhappy truth is that with each subsequent
generation of believers, there are fewer such leaders, and there are
increasingly more changes and challenges which face Christians and the church.

The dilemma
which plagues the human family as one generation fades and gives place to the
next, is recounted in the verses of this chapter. In modern days we have coined
the terminology ‘generation gap’, to describe the often sad lack of connection
in many of the vital aspects of life, between contiguous generations. It is a
term attempting to define the distance, dislike and disagreement, which exists
between any present generation and the next. This ‘gap’ has been blamed for the
breakdown of communication between children and their parents, the tearing and
disapproval of the values of prior generations, by contemporary society, and the
disagreements which reign whenever a task or situation is approached and either
the ‘new’ way or the ‘old way’ of doing things, is being invoked! The distance
between generations seems to be widening and attempts made to bridge ‘the gap’
are usually short lived, but they seem to nearly always be efforts by the older
generation to accept and embrace the ways of the newer.

For
Christians, this generational distance raises a concern by far greater than what
is fashionable to wear or what may be acceptable social mores. Due to the
eternal and absolute nature of the values taught in God’s Word, believers in
each generation are faced with the ever increasingly difficult task of
determining how to remain ‘in pace’ with the times, and yet avoid the
compromise and weakening of the principles God. It seems that in the church, each
new generation, will tend towards ‘making changes’ that the previous generation
considers inappropriate and dangerous. Once the previous generation ‘dies off’
or becomes a minority, ageing and ‘irrelevant’ background voice, the changes
made by the present generation become the new ‘norm’ , challenged only by the whispering memories of past legacies, or by the new, even more daring, liberal, bolder and even more widely disregarding proposals of the newly forming next generation.

At face
value all this may not appear to be ‘such a big deal’, and that the problem is
merely one of preferences between one generation and the next. It is by many
considered normal, necessary and even healthy, to insist on generational change
and identity, simply accepting that all change is automatically or overall, ‘good’. While
it is true that some things could be put down to generational preference, this
modernising of thoughts and ways among believers is not without serious repercussions.
It frequently promotes a departure from old, established and known ways, to
what is more world-friendly, tolerant and accepting of the contemporary
thinking and behaviour. There is a very strong influence, which the unsaved and
sinful world exerts upon the members of the church. This impact has grown
exponentially in the last 20 years with the advent of the internet, computers
and the ready availability of mass media.

The lines
of distinction between the godly and profane have become so marred and blurred,
that the pressure Christians must resist, is not just the obvious avoidance of
sin, but also, and more dangerous in the long run, the changes which overall
lessen and lose our true Christian identity. This is so obvious a battle field,
that in a self-deceiving effort to keep this identity, the nominal distinction
is made, by attaching the word ‘Christian’ to whatever worldly activity or
pursuit is undertaken by believers. So that for instance, when adopting the
music of the world, known for its God-insulting themes and designed with beats
and structures to pump those soul-damning ideals into the mind and heart of
listeners, the church attaches ‘Christian’ in front of it, making it ‘Christian
rock and roll’. Although with altered lyrics, the music remains unchanged from
anything one can hear readily on a secular radio station, reducing the distinction between
the secular and the sacred. Many Christians and their leaders justify the
compromise and consider it so acceptable that anyone not subscribing to it,
must clearly be 'out of touch'. They also refuse to acknowledge the reality of
its influence and the effects and ungodly changes this is bringing into the church.

In other instances doctrines, concepts and practices which were denied by
previous generations and considered ungodly and dangerous, are being remodelled,
renamed, embellished and read into the Christian ‘frame’. Individuals of great
influence and means, posing as ministers of the Gospel, present these
adulterated and poisonous beliefs to eager and biblically ignorant minds, changing
what they will think, feel and believe regarding God and His Word! This ‘new’
and re-defined Christianity then arrogantly stands in sharp contrast to the ‘old’
ways, belittling and victimising them as ‘narrow’, ‘bound’ and ‘irrelevant’!

The problem
is that whilst seeking to reach to and be relevant in a modern society, unhappy
and ungodly compromises are made. Note they are always made by the believers,
not by the world! It is stated that it is done in an effort to reach the lost. This
is in itself wrong. In reaching the lost, Jesus didn't direct us to adopt
contemporary culture, in fact He himself flew in the face of many of the cultural
dogmas of His day. Interestingly the practices then continue in the churches,
this time the justification is that this helps to ‘keep’ the lost that were
reached! In an attempt to ‘please everyone’, that is - trying to content the
preferences of members of all generations, we can lose sight that we are first
called to please God. Introducing and supporting worldliness in the church,
because the new generation feels more comfortable and content with that
approach, seems to ignore the fact that
God hates it, warns His people against it, and that the church happens to be His, not ours! These compromises by degrees, have led God’s people away from the absolutes of scripture,
and often diminish the impact of God’s word in the life of believers. The damage
is achieved by mixing down and diluting the message of the Bible in its
application to life, lessening its authority and relevance, and reading into it
the current, ungodly worldview, whilst at the same time upholding and
magnifying the religious practices associated with it. This is not a new
problem, and a careful study of the scriptures makes it clear, that as
believers we ought to ‘err on the side of caution’, when it comes to change.
Our text and many scriptures like it, describe aspects of this age-old predicament
which faces God’s people. (continued in Part 2)

Sunday, 25 November 2012

"But now being made free from
sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end
everlasting life."Romans 6:22

God gives
us our start by setting us free from sin.
What a joyous thought! Free from the prison which bound us and kept us
spiritually locked away and closeted in death. Free from the degradation and
decay of mind, heart and soul. Free from the anguish, shame and guilt of our
past and from the fears of awaiting future judgment!

Without
this initial and miraculous intervention of love and deliverance from God, we
would never experience what things more He has for us. Following deliverance
from sin and our old self, we become servants of the living God. No longer in the choking grasp of the hard taskmaster
of sin, we now serve the living, loving God who, as a gentle and firm Shepherd,
leads us, guides and protects us through the journey of life.

In this
capacity we are exposed to lifelong, faith building experiences which mould and
shape us into the people God wants us to be. The glorious times, as well as the
times of hardship and suffering, all play a part in the making and forging of the
disciples of Jesus. We discover and learn to savour the blessing and privilege
of being servants to God. The appreciation
of this position grows sweeter and dearer as time passes, as we recognize that
we have found our true purpose in life, and would not want to fill any other
station than that to which He has called us.

The entire
process of cleansing, changing and establishing His servants, can be summarised
in this one word: sanctification.
This is the condition of being made holy unto God. It is God's main action in
the heart and life of the believer. It is being made more like Him and becoming
a clearer, better reflection of His essence and character. The Bible calls
sanctification ‘God's will’ for His people, and we see in this verse that it is
to be the fruit of those who serve God.
It is the distinguishing sign therefore between believers and pretenders, and
the value which in the end will mark the church, the spotless, unblemished,
pure Bride, which Jesus is coming for and which He will present to Himself.

Every human
produces a ‘fruit’ in life. Outside of Christ and His values, however our
natural produce is nothing to be desired and is in fact overall, little more
than an ooze of decay and death. We have no good thing is us and even at our
very best, our fruit is marred, flawed and bitter, a result of the ‘tree’ it
issues from. The bible lists the works of the flesh, and this natural yield from
our beings is what contaminates and mars everything and everyone; its effects
can be readily seen all around in our society and world. We all, individually
and personally need to be freed from sin and its abhorrent fruit and effects,
and only Jesus can perform this miracle!

When we
become servants to God, we are
grafted into the life of Jesus. Energised by His Spirit and power which now
flows through us, we are given capacity to bear new, good and lasting fruit. This
is now the fruit of God’s Spirit in us, no longer our own. Through Jesus and
His values living and working in our hearts, the quality of the fruit we can
bring forth and the motivation for doing so reflects the purity, wholesomeness
and beauty of God – it is now fruit unto
holiness. It is evidence that the
King of Kings is in residence in this servant’s life. It shouts and testifies
of spiritual freedom, life and growth. It proclaims the reality, power and
holiness of God and adorns our thoughts, words, habits, actions, desires,
preferences and choices.

This
condition of holiness is not temporal or for this life only, but extends into
eternity. Our text states that the ‘end’ of holiness is in fact, a never ending
everlasting life! Heaven is the
everlastingly holy place, the abode of the supremely Holy God, and the final
destination of all divinely-delivered and sanctified believers, God’s servants who
have lived holy lives, separated from worldly ways and consecrated unto the
Lord!

What a
glorious journey is depicted in these choice and anointed words! A passage from
death to life - a voyage of liberation, sanctification and ultimate eternal
glorification!

Tuesday, 13 November 2012

"For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are
higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts
than your thoughts."Isaiah 55:8-9

God’s
thoughts are beyond our finite capacities. By ourselves and without His help,
we would never fathom them or grasp them. To teach us His ways, God related all
we need to know in an enduring ‘love letter’, inspired to tell us enough about
Him to honour and love Him, how we got here in the first place, and to convey to
us the plan and purpose of our existence. The Holy Bible – God’s Word, is the
only reliable tool of communication from God and the sole repository of truth
about the One true God, His works, ways and thoughts. Since it was given to
mankind, all kinds of exertions have been made to illustrate, define, explain
and analyse this divine mandate, in order to comprehend God’s revealed will and
message to us.

It is here
that we can learn all that is known about God, His ways, His thoughts, His
creative acts, His directives and purposes, and here too, that we can focus our
minds and harness our hearts to imbibe knowledge, wisdom and understanding not
found anywhere else. Entire libraries of books, references and commentaries
have been written over the centuries in an attempt to explain God’s letter to
man and exhaust its incomparable treasury. Every week, thousands of sermons and
lessons are delivered to listeners, expounding some aspect or topic of God’s
Word. Although this has continued for centuries, yet this heavenly resource is
not exhausted. Many have spent their whole lives digging deep into the truth
and message of the Bible, only to find that one lifetime is simply not enough
to plumb its depths.

In spite of
the unceasing and widespread drawing from this spiritual well, the multitudes
who daily drink from its living waters continue to find a quenching for their
thirsty souls. Its truths, principles, concepts and applications adorn and
direct the lives of people of all ages and walks of life, from all cultures and
in all times. Its stories and the message they convey, teach each new
generation how to live good, God-honouring and fruitful lives with the same
impact and freshness that was found by ancestors of old.

The Bible
has held the most prominent place and exerted the greatest authority in all
areas of mankind’s development and advancement. Its principles and truths have
contributed and impacted man’s achievements of an almost unending list of
structures and learning including government, art, science, history and human
relationships. It was the first book printed on the newly invented Gutenberg
press in 1440, and has been the No. 1 bestselling book since the 15th
century, topping the sales of all other printed matter every year with an
overall, staggering 6 billion copies printed! The Bible also holds the number one
position as the most sold and popular digital or electronic book (e-book) in
the world!

What makes
this enduring product something more than a mere book of printed words on paper
or electronic screens, is the fact that the Bible is God’s Word. It is a living
Word, so relevant and applicable to the essence of humanity, that it transcends
time and culture. It is the message which God Himself, by His Spirit and power,
inspired and communicated to mankind, and which He still stand by without
revision or alteration, for it was perfect for humanity from its inception. It
speaks to our souls, and reveals to us who we really are, and makes known the
purpose God has intended for our lives. It answers the essential questions we
all ask, and explains why we are here and where we are destined to go. Its
testimony of itself is that it is established forever, it is enduring and will
not pass away!

God makes
it clear to us that there is an unmeasurable distance between His ways and
thoughts, and ours. This is what makes His Word incomparable and unsurpassable
as the means of comprehending God. God’s
ways are higher and greater than anything we could ever imagine or come up with.
What is more, even with God’s revelation in hand, man cannot in his natural
mind and ability reach to the loftier and more profound thoughts and ways of
God, he needs the Lord's Spirit to inspire, illuminate open and clarify what is
revealed from God's mind and word. Without the influence, teaching, strength
and ability of God’s Spirit, man cannot live and practice the ways of God
consistently or successfully. Mankind is by nature weak and imperfect, unable
to direct life’s affairs without the help of the Almighty. History demonstrates
the obvious failure of even the best efforts that were made without regard to
God’s revealed principles. This is why as humans we cannot make up our own
minds about what is right and moral, but must rather enquire and learn these
values from the One who is perfect in all His ways and has the authority and
ability to dictate these standards.

Human
nature is fallen and it has a natural bent toward sin, wrongdoing and evil.
Man’s laws and restrictions are not enough. Without the influence of the Holy
Spirit and the direction of God's Word, humanity is lost and hopeless lacking
moral strength and destitute of any true and enduring value. We should be glad
that there is an All-knowing, All-powerful and Ever-present God, who cares so
much for us and whose ways are far above ours.
We ought to rejoice at the fact that He has revealed His higher ways and
thoughts to us in His Word, so that we may grow towards His perfection,
learning and becoming increasingly better human beings, through obedience and
application of them. It should be considered our privilege to love and serve
this Great and Almighty Benefactor, who more than anyone or anything else, can
make such a positive and eternal improvement of our lives and destiny. What joy
and great liberty we find when we are filled with the new knowledge and
understanding we can gain through Jesus! This opens to us ways above our
natural ways and thoughts greater, higher and deeper than our own natural
thoughts. Life is totally different, new and worthwhile when we begin to 'see' things
God's way!

Monday, 22 October 2012

"For
to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and
peace."Romans 8:6

Peace is the speech
topic of so many world leaders and generally the aim of humanity.
Represented by symbols and gestures recognized by people everywhere, this
elusive ingredient to the recipe of happy existence seems, in our troubled and
hectic world, harder than ever to find and harder still to maintain. Perhaps
the problem is not going to be fixed on a world-wide basis, until it is fixed
on a personal, individual level. Should peace truly reign in every person’s
heart, then communal peace and peaceful co-existence would not be such a
problem. The question then is how to get that peace in each individual’s heart
and mind?! Is there an answer?

Martin Luther King is
quoted as saying that “…peace is not the absence of tension, but the presence
of justice”.

The daily struggle of
the human family is to gain and maintain life, with peace as its highest ideal.
A peaceful life, content and free from the trauma and fear which characterizes
our existence seems to be everyone's ultimate goal. To that end we work, strive
and labour. All kinds of compromises, many very poor, are made in an
effort to ‘keep the peace’. In vain however, we reach for this desirable
quality in life, if we strive in our own strength and by our own carnal values.
The carnal mind is selfish, sensual and self-serving. It limits, obstructs and
narrows the flow of life; by its very values, it destroys the very peace we all
seek and will ultimately results in death.

So many wrongly think
that surrendering to the carnal mindset by adopting the trends and image of the
world, following what everyone else is doing, being part of the crowd, and
removing the tension of living a consecrated life for God, even at the cost of
their soul, is where peace may be found. Some, when they first leave the ways
of God and turn their backs on obedience to His principles, sense a momentary
and false peace, a release of the tension. The conflict between the flesh and
the Spirit ends and the pressure appears to leave them. This is not true peace
- it is surrender to the enemy. The temporary relief is due to their laying
down their spiritual weapons and ceasing the fight against the tyranny of the
flesh. Deceived by this seemingly ‘positive’ result they tread down the path of
self-destruction. Led by an illusion, which continues to appeal to their flesh,
like the proverbial donkey after the carrot, they continue to travel away from
God, only to find further down the road that nothing really satisfies, and not
only they have no true, lasting peace, but worse that they have sold out the
Prince of Peace and are now under the yoke and slavery of a merciless tyrant!
No true peace exists there, only sorrow, degradation and ultimate death.

Man’s best efforts to
bring about peace, through reforms, edicts, programs, therapy and a host of
other schemes continue to fail or at best produce a very poor
facsimile - the equivalent of a plastic bauble rather than the real jewel of
peace. The removing of God and His principles from humanity’s efforts can only
spell ruin and compromise. Peace without the Giver of Peace is neither true,
lasting nor altruistic. Peace which is not true peace, is a deception; peace
which doesn’t last is self-defeating; peace which doesn’t reach out to touch
and bless others is selfish and highly perishable!

Here then is the bible
recipe and answer for all that the human heart desires. The message is clear,
real peace cannot be obtained by means other than a godly, spiritual mind. True
personal peace seems to be not the removal of life’s irritations and
inconveniences, but the result of a stern judgment, a sentence brought against
our fallen carnal nature for the death it delivers when we subscribe to its
desires and promptings. Through the power of the Spirit of God, we must judge
what we think and do by God’s standards, resist fleshly desires, and say NO to
our carnal nature. This may not remove the tension in the short term, but it
will in due course, allow a different mind to the fore, a mind guided and led
by the Spirit of God and His word. Spiritual mindedness is a
surrender to God and His ways; It is thinking of and doing life from God’s
perspective not our own; it is an embracing of the values that judge our fallen
nature and free us from the bondage of the sin it fosters. The spiritual mind
can reason in the spiritual realm, comprehend spiritual truth and make us
spiritually liberated, set free! This is where true personal peace is found!
The result of the spiritual mind is life and peace!

Jesus said :
"...my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto
you...". This is the kind of peace worth having! God-initiated, preserved
and eternal peace, is the kind of peace which is beyond all human understanding
and yet is ours for the having through the Lord Jesus. Lifelong, God-less
efforts to find true and lasting peace any other way will fail. However a
person whose mind is connected to, settled in, obedient and practiced in the
spiritual thoughts and principles of God, will experience the kind of abundant
life, peace and contentment not found anywhere else or by any other means. Now
that's true living!

Tuesday, 16 October 2012

"As newborn babes, desire the sincere
milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the
Lord is gracious."1 Peter 2:2-3

It was love
from the start! I know this is how this father felt at the sight of each
newborn God has added to this family. To see each of our babies come into
the world, added unthinkable joy and thrill to us as parents, along with a deep
sense of new-found responsibility and an overwhelming feeling of wanting to
protect and provide. I guess this is the story of every loving couple who has
been blessed with having children, and the follow up to that beginning, (as the
same mums and dads have no doubt discovered), is that there is a whole lot more
to raising children than there is to conceiving them!

From the
beginning of life outside the womb, the healthy baby seeks nutrition from mum.
This is an intense desire and so strongly built into the human make up, that
when it is not fulfilled on time or enough, there is a very clear message, an
unmistakable outcry from that little person that solicits urgent action to
fulfil the need! We have all smiled at the distinctive happy grin on baby’s face,
when the tummy is full and contentment washes away the tears, easing the infant
into blissful sleep!

The
necessary nutrition and sustenance of food is not something babies measure,
reason or can even plan, they just desire it! They crave it so much that it
takes precedence over all other needs. A healthy baby needs little or no encouragement to consume a nutritious meal. Something God has written somewhere in
our being, incites us to want this sustenance. This is not because as babies we know
or understand the processes by which it works in our bodies, but simply because
somehow we know we need it! Without it we cannot survive - and survival,
growing, becoming stronger must be our first and greatest priority.

It should
be the same on the spiritual plane, with us and God's word. The desire to
receive, eat, be filled with and digest the word of God and pray should hold
priority over all else. We may not fully comprehend how God make it all work
within our spiritual person, but somehow we know it does. This makes prayerfully
feeding on God’s Word our daily, necessary priority, vital to our spiritual survival.
The indication in our text is that even as we grow in Christ, we should not
lose the healthy appetite and desire for God and His word that we had as new
born-again spiritual infants! The initial milk of God’s word and the more solid
food which follows, is the necessary diet for our soul, for spiritual growth and
well-being.

God has
provided the most appropriate and nutritious fare for our souls by giving us
His Word. Nothing should replace our desire to feed our minds, hearts and souls
upon it. Sadly, as in our physical eating, our spiritually healthy diet is
often replaced with ‘junk food’, which can never truly satisfy nor bring
benefits in the long run. In fact it has the opposite effect. Feeding on the
wrong things, results in spiritual health issues, the obesity of the flesh and
other inner problems, all of which threaten the loss of our spiritual life in
Jesus!

Peter
reminds us that if we have tasted of the grace of the Lord, His great love and
salvation, we should continue to appreciate the savour of His Word and Spirit,
and subscribe for life to the spiritual diet that brought us back from
spiritual death to life in the first place!

Sunday, 7 October 2012

"(For
the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the
pulling down of strong holds;)"2corinthians 10:4

Weapons, warfare,
strongholds! We are left without a shadow of doubt from the terminology of the
Bible, that God wants us to understand and remember - WE ARE AT WAR!

It is challenging to
our minds to think that the Prince of Peace, who calls us to live peaceably
with all men and to make our utmost effort towards loving and genuine, harmless
cohabitation at a physical level, issues at the same time a very real, strong
and serious call to us all, to fight valiantly in spiritual warfare.

We are soundly
reminded in Ephesians Chapter 6 that our enemy is not “flesh and blood” and
that is why we read here that our weapons cannot be those we might provide for
ourselves by which we might deal with physical foes. They cannot be the weapons
of the flesh for they cannot provide any benefit or defence in the battles of
the Spirit. Such man-made weapons could never prevail in this conflict,
regardless of how advanced or impressive they might be.

Nevertheless should we
be able to see with spiritual eyes the mode of dress of true believers, we
would see them in full battle armour, arrayed and ready for the enemy, should
enmity arise anywhere, anytime. A description of the spiritual armoury we are
able to receive from the Lord and use by His might and strength, is given in
the same chapter of Ephesians and includes both defensive and offensive
weapons. Many scriptures elsewhere also detail impressive spiritual weaponry
which is available to the consecrated believer.

That we are at war therefore
and in need to be well versed with the weapons of this conflict, is a fact well
known and well accepted by every spiritually minded believer. Like the weapons,
the battle is not fought in the ability of our flesh, though we live in this
body. The fight is rather a spiritual one, a conflict between us as believers
in Jesus and the powers of the spiritual world of darkness, sourced by our
enemy - Satan.

These powers are
arrayed against us and would want our destruction at any opportunity possible.
God's answer to this is to equip us with an arsenal which is not 'carnal', that
is - of the earthly or human kind, but is rather described as ‘mighty through
God’. Herein is a clue to the nature and
the use of these weapons. They are powerful against our enemy, when triggered,
launched, lifted, driven or in any sense handled by us ‘through’ God. Success
in these armed spiritual encounters has little to do with our own physical strength, human ability or skill, and everything to do with the way and degree to which we are
able to lean on Jesus through His Holy Spirit, in the use of these provided
munitions!

The weapons of the Spirit which God imparts to
all true believers include: prayer and fasting, the name and blood of Jesus,
God's Word, discernment, wisdom, faith and the fellowship of the saints. All of
these and much more are the mighty, powerful and formidable armoury which God
has provided and imparted to us and which can and will defeat our spiritual
enemies, when used ‘through God’. We are blessed to be so well equipped for the
fight and able in Jesus to vanquish our foes!

Our task then is to
‘wear’ at all times the armour God has provided; to be prepared ‘in the Spirit’
by practicing with each of the ‘weapons’ and being competent with them; but
most of all to be totally and humbly reliant on the power, direction and wisdom
of the Spirit of God, when faced with an enemy in a battle. It is only through Jesus
that we are caused to triumph over the adversary, by tearing down the
strongholds and destroying the grip and work of the enemy in our lives and the
lives of others!